LOCAL

Exploring Cherokee County’s cemeteries

Harry D. Butler
Special to The Times
Unusual graves are shown at Yellow Creek cemetery in Cherokee County.

A recent article written for this page concerned vintage cemetery grave shelters, particularly one of the state's surviving shelters located in Etowah County's Sardis City. Later, a now-retired, former co-worker, Danny Autwell, wrote about others of a different style in the Yellow Creek Baptist Church cemetery (where his parents are buried) just off Highway 411 in Leesburg in Cherokee County.

Sho ’nuff! Our visit to that hallowed ground proved to be more than what was expected. Further research about Cherokee County cemeteries gave more information about the early history of that portion of Alabama. Fascinating reading, it was and is!

There are more than 120 burial sites in the county, from Sand Rock on the southern end to Forney on the north; from the western edge at Cedar Bluff to the eastern corner in the Goshen community near Piedmont. Some are on church properties, others are on private land.

I found such interesting cemetery names as Berea, one of the five cemeteries in Jamestown; Black Oak, one of the four graveyards in Little River; and Ebenezer, just one of the 12 burial grounds in the town of Cedar Bluff. The name of the graveyard in Chattoogaville community is Mill Creek. Among all the graves, we found many dating back to the early 1800s.

According to the Cherokee County Historical Society, two people, a husband and wife – both born in South Carolina at the onset of the Revolutionary War – were laid to rest in the Barry Springs Indian Stockade Cemetery. They are John Barry, Sr (1771 - 1844) and Elizabeth Watson Barry (1774 – 1838).

This burial ground is about 35 yards from a spring from whence Native Americans got their water. It's believed that the springs are actually the mouth of an underground cavern. This bit of land was the starting spot for the infamous 1838 “Trail of Tears” march to Oklahoma.

The town of Leesburg is located in western Cherokee County, bordered by Lookout Mountain and the town of Sand Rock to the north and Weiss Lake on the Coosa River to the south. Weiss Dam, forming the lake, is located just south of the town limits. The town has six houses of worship – and nine cemeteries -- including Yellow Creek Baptist Church.

An extra amount of information comes from the internet's Wikipedia: Leesburg was originally called Hamptonville; it was named for Joseph Hampton and the Henslee family respectively. A post office was established as Hamptonville in 1836, and in 1839 the name was changed to Leesburg.

The above bit of information brings us back to what today's story is all about — a learning of interesting history about this area's graveyards. Whether rural or in the city, all of them have points of curiosity, some of which could be called strange. This writing is about a cemetery that is decidedly different.

Many of the burial sites in the cemetery at Yellow Creek Baptist Church are set on a wooded, sloping hill and have unknown birth and death dates. A sampling shows the graves of Elizabeth Alexander, 1852 --1897; C. J. Alexander, 1855 --1937 and that of Joseph Bone, 1857—1939; Mrs. S. E. Chesnut, 1835-1910 and Jane Helms Griffin, 1830-1907.

Two sections of this graveyard are of particular interest due to their unique shelters.

One group of graves is much different from all the others. Each of these has an “A” frame of concrete slabs, some over a flat concrete slab – each about 4x6 in size covering the person's burial place. A few have headstones that are readable, most are not. Some of the graves under their “A” frame are sunken.

The other is the unusually styled grave shelter of 21-year old Herbert V. Williams who died in 1942.

This 78-year old grave is protected by a four-sided yellow brick box, measuring approximately four feet wide, six feet long and about a yardstick high. What brings the most attention to this grave is that of a “picture window, about 18 inches high and four feet long on each side of the box. The windows can be opened for flowers to be placed inside the box and over the grave. Very interesting, indeed!

Our visit to Yellow Creek's cemetery was most rewarding; in time to come, we'll visit more of our area's final resting places.